ok. My 1987 z28 camaro with a 350 TPI is now leaking at the heater core. I know its alot of work to put a new on in. I hear there is a easy way to slove this and that is bypass the heater core. since its almost summr I don't need heat right now and I don't have any money or time. How can I bypass the heater core. I've never done this b4 so help explain it to me. THank you

 

i think that if u take the hose that goes in and the hose that goes out, and put them together, like on a pipe or something, you can bypass it that way. The hoses go into and out of the firewall, on the passengers side.

 

Just replace the thing. You can have it done in about 2 hours.

 

2hours? Yeah, right, not if you have to remove the dash. Luckily on my '86 all I had to do was remove a small black panel under the pass. dash.
Put some towels down on the floor as coolant will leak out. Also, it might be a good idea to take the old one to the store to be sure the pipes are exactly the same. The one they gave me was slightly different. Went back and that's all they had, went to a local store and got the right one.

 

ha, yeah right 2 hours, i just replaced mine yesterday. If you have a 92 bird you CAN NOT just remove the passenger side thing. You have to take out the dash and other junk. It's a PITA.

 

I've done it on my 85 Z28, an 84 TA, and a 91 TA. All without removing the dash. Drain the coolant and remove the hoses. Remove pass. lower hush panel and heater core cover panel. Lower ECM. Remove screws holding the heater core and shroud in and remove. The 91 was a little more difficult, but a mirror, a couple of extensions and a wobble socket made short work of it. Like I said - 2 hours.

 

87 Camaro SC, 2.8, removed dash, and console, dropped steering column, had core out and in my hand in 1 hour, back in in another 2. Hint......power screwdriver saves pry a couple hours of work!

 

I just did mine on my 90 GTA ,the hardest part was getting the heater hoses off of the core . I had been putting it off because I heard it was such a pain , until my passenger floor board was in a puddle of coolant . It cost $30 at autozone and took about 2 hours max . That included the time it took to use "The Little Green Machine"on my carpet!

 

so how did u do it then?

 

I pulled mine too, and went from underneath the dash. It was a royal pain, and my back/neck hurt like hell afterwards, but I didn't have to remove the dash either.

Remove the passenger side hush panel (above the passenger's feet). The black box you see against the firewall is the cover to the heater box. Remove all the 9/32" (7mm I think) screws with a nutdriver, and then remove the box cover. There's some stuff in the way, so be careful as you work, don't snap anything. It's not rocket science, but it's a pain to work in that tight spot... don't drop any screws

How did you guys remove the dash? I'd love to take mine down; it rattles like a sonofabtch, and I bet there's loose screws all over the place.

 

I got a mechanic to teo by-pass my heater core and it took about 15 minutes, you also clean your engine bay alot by removing alot of the unused hoses, i noticed my car ran a lot cooler and helped out the flow and make it stronger.
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It cost me $15.00 for labor, but this car has NO heater
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You can also just connect the two hoses going into the firewall, but make sure you seal the connections otherwise you will be leaking all over the place, it's not easy to access this area.
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That's how i did it and it's good until today.

 

Do what he said if you need a "quick fix". I did this on my 85 TA without any problems. Then go back later and replace the heater core when you have time.
Later Barrett

 

Best way to bypass it is to go buy the $3 adapter and hose clamps from the parts store. It has one side to fit in the 3/4" hose and one to fi in the 5/8" hose. You remove the hoses from where it goes into the firewall, than stick em on the adapter and use hose clamps to secure it. It'll hold until you need heat againa nd properly fix it.

 

Just my opinion,but it seems like just as much a PITA to bypass it than to fix . Like was mentioned there is very little room where the hoses connect to the core , that is why getting the hoses off it was about the hardest part of changing mine.I also know that some of the earlier third gen stuff is not as easy as some of the later models , like '89 to '92.I took 3 screws out under the passenger side dash,wich revealed the heater core cover, plastic piece with about 3 or 4 screws,removed the cover and then the core(4screws).